About Event

Open European Championships Biathlon 2016 Tyumen

The first European Championships was held in 1994 in Finnish city named Kontiolahti. Since that time, Russia hosted the European Championship three times: Izhevsk in 1999, Novosibirsk in 2005, Ufa in 2009. In 2016, the European Championships will be held in Tyumen in 21-29 of February on the tracks of the regional winter sports center Zhemchyuzhina Sibiri (Pearl of Siberia).

Tyumen biathlon center and its tracks will witness the performance of the top-ranked biathletes, including the Russian national team. Because the World Cup series will be held in Canada and USA at the same time as the European Championships, and the biathlon celebrities usually avoid taking long-distance flights, we expect to see the world biathlon elite in Tyumen.

The Competition Program consists of traditional sprints, pursuit and mixed-relay. Some changes will also take pace at the European Championships schedule: there will be a new biathlon event called “Super Mixed Relay”, and mass-start will replace the individual race.

Another difference from previous European Championships is an abolition of the age limit: if earlier a biathlete could become a participant of the continental competition only if he is not older than 26 years, now everyone of any age can take part in the Championships after all selections to the national team.

The European Championships venue is named as Zhemchyuzhina Sibiri (Pearl of Siberia). It is one of the best in Russia and around the world biathlon complex. Earlier Tyumen Sport Center already hosted the Summer Biathlon World Championships, as well as a number of commercial competitions. What is more next years Tyumen will host one of the World Cup series in biathlon and cross-country skiing.

The competition organizers are traditionally the Government of the Tyumen region, the Sport and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen region, as well as the Centre of Sports Training and Sports Events of Tyumen Region.